South Australia seeks to reduce its Ecological Footprint 30% by 2050

05/03/2007 07:07 PM

The Premier of South Australia, Hon Mike Rann has sought to bring ‘Ecological Footprint’ thinking to the core of decision-making, by including the Ecological Footprint as a key sustainability indicator in South Australia’s Strategic Plan. The Plan establishes a target to reduce South Australia’s Ecological Footprint by 30% by 2050.

The 2007 edition of the plan also seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050. Greenhouse gas emissions make up more than half of South Australia’s Ecological Footprint and the aggressive reduction target has been approved by the legislature.

The Ecological Footprint provides a consumption based focus on greenhouse gas emissions, and requires that attention is given to the 42% of South Australia’s Ecological Footprint that is not attributable to greenhouse gas emissions.

A number of other initiatives are being pursued including:

* Initiatives which seek to change the way waste is viewed, to increase focus on avoiding, reducing, reusing and recycling rather than simply treating and disposing of waste. Resource efficiency has a huge role to play in attaining sustainability, and this is a new emphasis of Zero Waste SA’s business plan.
* Pursuing the development of a Footprint benchmark for residential developments against which future developments can be compared, enabling an evolution in urban planning to suit a carbon-constrained future.
* The use of Footprint in schools to communicate and educate about sustainability achievements, enabling the concept of sustainable limits to be introduced to audiences young and old.
* Investigating complementary policy links between the human health and sustainability agendas with respect to food consumption, to simultaneously address high levels of overweight and obesity and South Australia’s large food Footprint.
* Contributing to research projects that seek to further enhance the utility of the Ecological Footprint tool.